In the nineteenth century, British colonialists truly scoured the earth for new territory. They travelled far and wide for new conquests and arrived in New Zealand. Already equipped with European weaponry, the complicated tribal make-up of the islands led to decades of New Zealand Wars!
New Zealand Wars: History
The Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 sought to bring an end to the Musket Wars between various Māori tribes in New Zealand, fighting with newly acquired European weapons. Existing in both English and the Māori language, it protected the Māori’s ownership of their lands and possessions under the condition that they accept the sovereignty of the British crown and become British subjects. The treaty also forbade the native New Zealanders from selling their land to anyone except the British government.
Māori
The indigenous population of New Zealand.
Musket Wars
The Musket Wars were a series of battles fought between 1807 and 1837 in which indigenous Māori battled for territorial supremacy and intertribal honour.
However, in 1843 the Wairau Affray, between Europeans and Māori New Zealanders, took place when settlers wielding an illegitimate land title deed attempted to force the Māori off a plot of land in the northern South Island.
New Zealand Wars: Timeline
Governor-General Robert FitzRoy launched an investigation of the Wairau Affray in 1844 and declared that the settlers had been at fault, but this was just the start of the New Zealand Wars, let's examine the key moments.
| Year | Event |
| 1840 | The controversial Treaty of Waitangi establishes British sovereignty over New Zealand, but promises continued Māori ownership over land and property. |
| 1843 | The Wairau Affray incident occurred, marking the first armed conflict between Māori tribes and European settlers seeking land. |
| 1845 | The Flagstaff War saw two Māori chiefs defeated by British and pro-British Māori forces, but with no punishment against the rebel leaders. |
| 1858 | The Kīngitanga movement appointed the first Māori king, sparking concern from the British colonial government. It was an act of defiance against further auctioning of land. |
| 1860 | Another controversial British land purchase causes the First Taranaki War, which is inconclusive in its result. |
| 1863 | A large British imperial military expedition arrived in New Zealand and invades Waikato, driving the Kīngitanga further into the interior. Thanks to the Suppression of Rebellion Act, the British could now confiscate land from the Māori, who were cast as 'rebels.' |
For over ten years, a series of wars broke out across the North Island, prompting even more aggressive land-grabbing and harsh enforcement of British sovereignty over New Zealand, resulting in an end to organized resistance in 1872.
New Zealand Wars: Map
As evidenced by the map, much of the fighting occurred on the North Island, where the majority of Māori land could be found. This gives an idea of the sheer decimation of land and culture that took place! Now we will look at some key moments of the New Zealand Wars.
New Zealand Māori Wars
In March 1845 Māori rangatira Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti rebelled against new British Governor George Grey, citing various issues with the Treaty of Waitangi as their reason for rebelling. Warriors of the two chiefs defeated British and pro-British Māori forces under chief Tāmati Wāka Nene in the Battle of Ōhaeawai in July 1845, in what was known as the Flagstaff War or the Northern War. Kawiti’s fortress at Ruapekapeka was the site of a surprise counterattack by Nene and the British.
Rangatira
The chief of a Māori community or 'iwi'.
After Hōne Heke sustained an injury, so he and Kawiti sought peace. Governor Grey, following the advice of his ally chief Nene, accepted peace without taking any punitive measures against the rebels, ending the war in January 1846.
Fig. 1 - Te Ahuahu, a battleground of the Northern War
The First Taranaki and Waikato Wars
The years immediately following the Flagstaff War saw several more incidents similar to the Wairau Affray. Once more, settlers attempted to enforce their ownership of lands that had been purchased through disputed land contracts and were met with resistance. One localized conflict sometimes called the Wanganui War was settled by the Governor in 1848 through a peace deal, after which followed a period until 1860 that was mostly free of larger-scale conflict.
A Māori King
By 1858, a popular movement called the Kīngitanga to appoint a king of the Māori had succeeded, and King Pōtatau Te Wherowhero rose as the movement’s first monarch on the north island of New Zealand. The purpose of the movement had been to unite the various Māori tribes and allow them to trade more effectively with European powers on equal terms. The Māori believed that the 'mana' or the supernatural energy of the king would aid this pursuit.
The appointment of the king was seen as a direct threat to British sovereignty over the islands by Governor Thomas Gore Browne, who began to plan an invasion against the Kīngitanga power base in Waikato to crush them.
The king would only reign for two years before his son, Tāwhiao, replaced him after his death in 1860. He would be put to work straight away. With land in Waitara sold to the British, fighting broke out in March 1860 in Taranaki between Māori warriors and British imperial soldiers, mostly brought in from Australia. Each side suffered similar losses in battle and an inconclusive ceasefire was declared, with neither fully satisfied.
As a result, Governor George Grey finally decided to enact Gore Browne's plan to invade the north island in mid-1863. He requested the central government in London to send him at least 10,000 troops, and they obliged, sending General Duncan Cameron to lead an expeditionary force to New Zealand. Grey ordered an ultimatum be given to the Māori in northern New Zealand to swear an oath of fealty to the British Queen Victoria or be exiled to the south. His ultimatum was largely refused, and the Māori conducted a series of raids against his forces.
Fealty
A solemn oath of loyalty to a monarch or a lord.
After a series of major battles, the numerically superior British forces captured the Kīngitanga capital in December 1863 and conquered the rest of Waikato by April 1864. The Kīngitanga retreated deeper into the interior of the North Island. The emboldened British government chose to confiscate large swathes of land, prompting further rebellions.
The Second Taranaki and East Cape Wars
The period from 1863 through 1866 is sometimes known as the Second Taranaki War, in which various Māori uprisings took place in response to British land confiscation and deliberate government delays to resolve existing land disputes.
A popular religious movement known as Hauhau sought to unify the Māori and was fervently opposed to British land confiscations. A Hauhau-motivated killing of European missionary Carl Volkner resulted in a punitive expedition by colonial forces. This became a series of small battles known as the East Cape War, in which the colonial government sought to crush the popularity of the Hauhau movement.
Did you know? Throughout the 1860s, the British adopted a scorched earth policy against their enemies and often failed to discriminate between Māori peoples who were loyal to the British government and those who were against it. Unfortunately, the result was many incidents of brutality against the indigenous population regardless of their alignment and the confiscation of more land.
Defiant Māori Leaders
In the late 1860s, Māori rangatiras Riwha Titokowaru and Te Kooti were angry with their king, whose resolve against the colonialists was weakening. Therefore, they led organized attacks and raids against European settlers who occupied confiscated lands.
Fig. 2 - A view of Poverty Bay today
Let's examine each of their causes and how their rebellions failed.
| Māori leader | Religious Movement | Uprising |
| Riwha Titokowaru | Formally a Methodist, Titokowaru was an extremist Hauhau who revived methods of cannibalism and ritual sacrifice, striking fear into the European settlers. | Titokowaru managed to reclaim the land surrounding Waingongoro and Whanganui Rivers. However, in 1869, his war effort went awry when his men deserted him at Taurangaika. Accusations that he had sexual relations with a rangatira's woman, ruined his mana. |
| Te Kooti | Te Kooti was a leader of the Ringatu church, derived from Christianity, which is still prominent in New Zealand today. | Previously imprisoned by colonialists, Te Kooti escaped captivity in 1868. In November, his forces launched a violent attack against Poverty Bay, in which many settlers—including women and children—were killed and their homes burned. He continued guerrilla attacks on Europeans and other Māori tribes in the area. |
Te Kooti hid among the Tūhoe tribe, whilst being hunted down by British and Māori, due to the bounty on his head. He finally had asylum granted by the Māori king in 1872 and was later pardoned by the imperial government in 1883.
Guerrilla
An unconventional method of warfare characterized by small-scale stealth attacks.
Having given up the fight in 1872 he spent the rest of his life in religious service. With the end of Te Kooti’s rebellion, the era of the New Zealand wars drew to a close, with no subsequent major rebellions or uprisings taking place against the British Empire.
New Zealand Wars: Outcome
The New Zealand Wars resulted in the confiscation of a large portion of Māori land in New Zealand—mainly on the North Island—by the British Empire. It also resulted in the establishment of the Māori monarchy, an institution that continues to exist to the present day, and disagreements between tribes.
With the disappearance of the Maori system of property rights, so too went much of the traditional political structure of the tribes. When chiefs could no longer control the allocation of land, they lost much of their authority.
— Stuart Banner, 'Two Properties, One Land: Law and Space in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand', 19991
Ultimately, the slow erosion of land and property had a domino effect. It meant that resistance would be less and less meaningful, with the seizing of land amounting to the seizing of identity, which proved difficult to salvage without its traditional characteristics.
Fig. 3 - Auckland memorial to the New Zealand Wars
The New Zealand Wars - Key takeaways
The New Zealand Wars began over land disputes and disagreements concerning the Treaty of Waitangi.
The Wars were not always exclusively fought between British imperial soldiers and the Māori, as some Māori leaders were pro-British and fought against those who were not.
The Kīngitanga established a king of the Māori people, prompting fears among European settlers of a united Māori people organizing a rebellion against British rule.
The suppression of the Kīngitanga and subsequent wars caused the British Empire to take increasingly harsh measures to enforce their sovereignty, and also resulted in the confiscation of a significant amount of Māori land.
With the end of Te Kooti’s war in 1872, large-scale organized resistance against British rule ceased in New Zealand, ending the period of the New Zealand Wars.
References
- Stuart Banner, 'Two Properties, One Land: Law and Space in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand', Law & Social Inquiry, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 807-852.
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